Police: Suspect in Club Pierre officer-involved shooting fired shots into air

Tallahassee Police officers say the man they shot Sunday morning near Club Pierre on Orange Avenue was firing shots in the air with a gun just minutes before he led police on a chase, according to court documents obtained by the Democrat this morning.

Jacoby Hart, 24, initially denied he fired the shots in a nearby parking lot, but later said he may have shot some on Polk Street, said TPD Inv. Mike Hubbard in a probable cause affidavit.

Hart was eventually shot by police while fleeing from them.

TPD officers were patrolling outside the club about 1:50 a.m. when they heard gunshots. The two officers immediately grabbed their guns, the report said, and ran in the direction of the shots, which came from a nearby parking lot.

One of the officers said he saw Jacoby Hart, 24, firing shots in the air. As officers approached, Hubbard wrote, they saw Hart on Polk Street, holding a gun in his right hand.

Officers commanded him to drop the gun, but he didn't, and he took off running. As he ran, he pointed his gun at officers while crossing South Monroe Street, police said.

The report said officers were in fear for their lives, and one of them fired numerous times at Hart. He was hit, fell to the ground and dropped his weapon.

Hart was taken to Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare for treatment.

The report said Hart told investigators he ran with the gun in his waistband and didn't know police were behind him until he crossed South Monroe Street.

Numerous bullets and live rounds were found near where Hart fell. Those rounds, along with his gun - which investigators said he told them he obtained on the "streets" - were the same caliber as the spent shell casings police found where Hart was initially shooting, the report said.

Hart is currently in the Leon County Jail where he faces charges of discharging a firearm in public, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer.

The two officers involved in this shooting have since been placed on administrative leave pending the criminal investigation.